Postal workers unions protest Staples program

NEW YORK (AP) - Postal workers around the country protested in front of Staples stores on Thursday, objecting to the U.S. Postal Service's pilot program to open counters in stores, staffed with retail employees.

Rallies were planned at 50 locations in 27 states. In New York, about 100 workers marched from the main office on 8th Avenue to a Staples store about five blocks away, carrying signs and chanting, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Staples deal has got to go."

In Washington, D.C., more than 200 people gathered at a Staples, drumming on buckets and holding signs that read: "Stop Staples. The US Mail is Not for Sale."

One of them, postal service maintenance mechanic Robert Black, called the pilot program "a back-door way of privatizing the post office" and taking away jobs from postal workers.

"It seems as though they are doing whatever they can to break down the union," he said.

Last year, Framingham, Mass.-based Staples Inc. began offering postal services under a pilot program that now includes some 80 stores. The American Postal Workers Union objects, because it says well-paid union workers have been replaced by low-wage nonunion workers. (A union spokesman said postal workers make $25 an hour on average, far more than retail clerks.) The union also worries it will lead to post office closures.

John Hegarty, president of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, which represents about 45,000 mail handlers, also said the outsourcing endangers the sanctity and security of the mail.

"We are highly trained, skilled postal employees and they want to give it to employees who really don't know anything about the mail," he said.

Staples customer Jon Lenzner in Washington agreed that security was a concern.

"While the majority of postal workers are honest, it enlarges the pool of people who can take private, personal information," said Lenzner, a prosecutor. "You have, in essence, doubled the pool of people who can steal your mail."

Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union representing 200,000 employees, called the Staples partnership "a dirty deal."

Staples spokesman Mark Cautela would not address the workers' concerns, only saying the store is always testing new ways to serve its customers.

The dispute comes as the financially struggling Postal Service looks to cut costs and boost revenues.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has said the Staples program has nothing to do with privatization. Rather, it's a "direct response to the changing expectations of customers who demand greater convenience and a one-stop shopping experience." It's also an opportunity "to grow the business," the Postal Service said in a statement Thursday.

Aside from Staples, the Postal Service has roughly 65,000 other retail partner locations around the country - such as CVS pharmacies and Wal-Mart stores that sell postal products. The Staples program, however, allows customers to buy stamps, send packages and use Priority and certified mail.

The aim is to increase access "to customers in locations where they already shop," the agency says.

The service lost $5 billion in the 2013 fiscal year and has been trying to get Congress to pass legislation to help with its financial woes, including an end to Saturday mail delivery and reduced payments on retiree health benefits. It lost $15.9 billion in the 2012 budget year.

Comments

The "original" post offices were customer "windows" located inside general stores. The Post Offices, as we know them today, were built during the second half of the 19th Century - as a result of corruption within the postal service. Then the employees were covered under Federal Civil Service and all went well for a hundred years -- until the 1980's when the postal service became privatized and unionized. Now, half their employees stand by idel while the other half work. The idle ones say things such as "it's not my job," to help their co-workers because of their union.The postal service needs revamped, or done away with in its present configuration. The partnership with Staples is a step in that direction.

and staples workers are going to be any different and what happens to all the people whos jobs will be taken by staples workers what happen with you at usps offices is not a reflection of the entire usps this they loseing money big time move the jobs to people who make way less and they save millionss buttom line then put a other people out of work to do it

As in any service orientated business you have good and bad. Unfortunately I live in a area that only has P.O. Box delivery. Postal employees are not overpaid however their benefit package is far more than the military and the private sector. The unions that represent the Postal Employees have con-tributed to the current financial crisis and the Congress has left them in the lurch. The only solution is discontinue Saturday delivery, revise their retirement & health benefits ( think ObamaCare) and do so in a manner that their retirement is gradnfathered in. Not everybody is going to get what they want.

Always about the union what about being good for the customer. Just more BS feed to the union members from their leadership and never about the customer. Just try to imagine any service business operating under a union. Sure would be hard to make that work.

First, ALL First Class mail is sorted by machine. It is sorted by street addresses, ready for carrier pick-up. Business mail is the problem. There are more businesses that close and open, which is why a "CD" has to be revised every six months. Most mail today, is "junk mail", which does take time to put in every mailbox, since the volume of mail has decreased by "paying online". If the idea that UPS, and Fed Ex, should takeover the USPS, you're wrong. These carriers use the postal system to help with the volume of packages. USPS is the lowest cost system for mail, and packages, PERIOD! Staples, will not sort the mail, nor bring it to the post office. A postal employee has to get it from that location. I remember when the longshoreman workers, were paid $150.00 a week, raise a family, put children through college. Now, because of the dollar being worth nowhere near it's value, everyone complains about the unions. Consider this, Express mail is able to get to it's destination, over-night, 2-Day service, for years, which helps Amazon and other companies, gets packages to consumers quickly. Just imagine if Amazon had to physically send an employee to deliver each package. There's so much mis-information out these days, it's a shame, because when you don't have these service, and are charged a lot more money, (such as in Europe and other countries), you'll be happy you live in the US, and have the Postal System. Congress devised a plan for UPS, and Fed-Ex to complete with the postal system. If all of you people that complain about the supposed $25.00 an hour, if you include the cost of your insurance, medical coverage, with dental, and eye care, it is probably $10.00 an hour the employee makes.

The reason they are asking them to fund the pension for the next 75 years is because they know these Post Office jobs are short term-there will only be a few of those jobs in the future. Many jobs are going to the private sector because labor is cheaper. The postal union has just about priced its members out of business. Also, in my lifetime I had checks stolen and changed and cashed by a postal employee delivering my mail to a suburban home and it happened again in a different location just recently in my neighborhood. I wonder how many other people have had their money or checks stolen from their home mailboxes.

If the USPS is being operated as any other business in the USA, then let them operate as one. With the lost of over 17.5 billion dollars in two (2) years, where are the revenues coming from to pay for their over head to operate as a business. Other business is trying to grow their business in whatever way possible, then USPS should find ways to do the same. The age of electronics is changing in the world. Let the USPS find a way to grow and stop crying. The union wages and benefits is base on the USPS profit/bottom line or else let it go belly up like the auto industry and any other business entity.

This is great news. I don't have to wait at the post office with 15 to 20 other people waiting while there is only one window opened. Specially around the holidays if lucky there are two windows opened. I live in Colorado Springs and the Cimarron branch is the worst for service. Don't go if you have to pick up a package that is an additional 15 min. just to find your package. That's when they can get their addition break. I'm very surprised this branch is still open after all the cuts the Post Office has made. Most of my business has gone to FedEx. I can buy stamps at Walmarts.